Why inbound marketing is hard: getting customers to go out of their way to talk to 'someone else's company'

What I've learned from 3 years of breathing the 'inbound marketing' industry

Hi.
I'm Josh, a B2B marketer based in Korea, working alongside e-commerce marketers on their challenges at Indent, an AI company.

From my first company until now, I've recognized the importance of inbound marketing, produced more than 100 pieces of corporate blog content, and seen the results firsthand.

The roughly 50 pieces published at Indent since early last year have driven more than 4x year-over-year growth in steady site traffic and, likewise, more than 4x the consultation requests, making a huge contribution to managing the sales pipeline.

But it didn't produce results from the start.
The 50+ pieces I published before joining Indent didn't make much of a splash in terms of inbound.
And even at Indent, I'd say we only really started publishing meaningful content consistently at the end of last year.

So from now on, I'm going to write one post a week organizing the know-how I've found on the 'strategy', 'environment', and 'execution' of inbound marketing.

I hope my writing helps those who are interested in inbound marketing.

The real reason 'inbound marketing' is hard

First of all, what exactly is inbound marketing?
My writing assistant, AIpaca Writer, defined it like this.

Like a good student of mine, it gave a clean summary that fits my philosophy 👍🏻
But for this post at least, I'd like to define inbound marketing this way.

Inbound marketing, from the customer's point of view
Getting them to go out of their way to talk to 'someone else's company'

In a B2B business, our customers are 'office workers'.
And among them, the sales targets we need to bring in are at least associate-level or above.

From their point of view,
1. coming to our website,
2. clicking a 'request a consultation', 'get a quote', or 'apply for consulting' button, and
3. filling in their company's information
is a much bigger deal than you'd think.

The real inbound marketing I've experienced is 'getting prospects, during work hours, to speak to us on behalf of the company they work for.'
To do that, you have to be able to create content that is truly 'persuasive' and 'gives them a justification'.

That's why inbound marketing is hard.
That's why inbound marketing takes resolve.

This is why I feel uncomfortable when inbound marketing is described in terms like 'getting customers to walk in on their own' or 'free marketing'.

Inbound marketing is not 'free marketing'

Even though we've learned from the companies that came before us that content-based inbound marketing is useful, and in the SaaS industry in particular is the textbook play of textbook plays, the reason it's hard to execute is that it devours 'time', the most important resource a startup has, like crazy.

That's not just the time it takes to plan, write, edit, and distribute content; it also takes a lot of time to make it lead to SEO and conversions.

So inbound marketing needs an owner.
Someone has to be immersed in the 'strategy', 'environment', and 'execution' that fit each company, and related teams need to help make it happen.

Division of roles within the organization for inbound marketing success

1. Marketers
   1. Keep reminding the organization of the importance of inbound marketing and execute consistently
   2. Take responsibility for creating content that represents the company
   3. Stay curious about customers' fears, gaps, and aspirations
2. Product team
   1. Uncover the product messages and value that marketers will communicate externally
   2. Development and design support for technical SEO and brand image
   3. Product quality that meets customer expectations, and steady updates
3. Sales team
   1. Pass raw, unfiltered customer VOC and FAQs to marketers
   2. Use the company's content strategically during the sales process
4. C-level
   1. Give feedback on content that represents the company
   2. Approve the resources inbound marketing needs

When roles are divided well like this, or specialized solutions are used in the right places, inbound marketing starts to pay off and the website itself works as a growth engine.

Why you should still do 'inbound marketing'

The reason this first post on inbound marketing starts with 'why it's hard' rather than building anticipation is that it really is a rough journey.

But the reward when it succeeds is just as great.
In particular, consistently uncovering success stories and content that shows off your expertise can be the reasons a 'customer goes out of their way, during work hours, to talk to someone else's company', as I described above.

Starting next week, I'll go step by step through how to create 'inbound' at the content level.

If you're in B2B marketing, and especially if you're just starting inbound marketing, you can leave questions for me and more experienced marketers through the communities and profile below.

Not sure where to start? Apply for a free inbound marketing consultation

1. Who: people starting inbound marketing in B2B, especially SaaS
2. How
   1. Send me the challenges you're facing via LinkedIn message.
   2. I'll either answer directly or write it up as a blog article and send it to you.
3. Bonus
   : You'll be the first to receive the e-book, Running Inbound Marketing with Minimum Resources, that I'm planning.

I hope that through my writing, more B2B SaaS companies can run successful inbound marketing and help their customers.

I'll be back with more useful content.

Thank you!